Ailes’s deputy, Fox News programming chief Bill Shine, has sent out orders mandating that producers must get permission before booking Rove or Morris....A Fox spokesperson confirmed the new booking rules for Rove and Morris, and explained that Shine’s message was “the election’s over.”

Multiple sources told NY Mag that Rove's election night tantrum when Fox called the race for Obama made Ailes angry. That was one of the most bizarre episodes of punditing in recent memory -- and embarrassing for the network.

He's just mad at them. The big guy believed the same sh*t they did, or he never would've let it on the air. Fox is a network aimed at the single least intelligent demographic in the nation -- free Americans who have used their freedom to do nothing more than make themselves ignorant. And that is the simple truth. Not that the other MSM outlets are that much better, just that Fox long ago decided to be THE steaming pile of sh*t, and they have succeeded beyond their wildest imaginations.

the reason they do well in the ratings is they tell their audience exactly what they want to hear. Namely that they are the victim. may as well call it the stereotype reinforcement network.

I watch Fox quite a bit for the unintentional comedy...that's the impression I get. The other stations do it too to some extent, but a shred of journalistic scruples remain to hold them back just a tad. Fox is at another level bro.

They're the "king" of cable news because they cater to a segment of the population that wants propaganda instead of actual news. In fact, their highest rated shows are all opinion shows hosted by right-wing blowhards throwing red meat to their fellow wingers.

1 - You must be mistaken. They're not a "right-leaning newscast" - they're "fair and balanced". But you are right in one respect. Since they are the only "right-leaning newscast", they don't have any competition. People interested in actual news are divided up amongst the other cable and broadcast channels. That's why they're "the king".

"Production value is higher than anything else on cable news"? Based on what? Maybe you're right ... there is a segment of the population that values appearance over substance.

But, I get that a lot from some of my cognitively challenged friends when I try to point out the embarrassingly duplicitous "news" Fox puts out there. They always (quite smugly, of course) chirp back, "well, there must be a whole lot of "dopes" like me for Fox to be #1 every year."

So, I answer with, "if ratings ="good," just imagine how "good" Lucy reruns would be if Justine Bieber announced that for New Years Eve this year he was going to try and break "The Largest Turd Ever" on the Lucy set.

a business but they have never been concerned with putting out a good product. They are like the national enquirer of news. As long as people will buy their crap they are going to keep shoveling it. The problem is that Fox has now become a laughing stock and their junk has finally caught up with them.

If Fox was so concerned with that kind of stuff they would be dumping more than just Rove and Morris. They would be putting people like Ann Coulter on that list too.

... as proof that they put out a good product? Maybe if you define their product as conservative propaganda designed to capture an older/conservative segment of the market, rather than news.

Of course, liberals and moderates are divided up among the numerous, other broadcast and cable networks, whereas Fox has the wingers all to itself. Why wouldn't they're ratings be the highest (well, ... among cable networks, at least)?

It's readily apparent that Fox News has been operating as the GOP's de facto media arm for quite some time now.

Let me state up front that I would probably not find anything wrong with Fox News' performance as a partisan propaganda outlet per se, were its role in attempting to shape public perception both fully acknowledged upfront and publicly disclosed.

And that's where Fox News fails spectacularly in its pretensions toward the practice of honest journalism, especially whenever its bubbleheaded on-air personalities level charges of political bias against other media.

Now, those charges may arguably have some merit (as one might ascertain after an evening spent viewing MSNBC's primetime programming), but honestly, the Fox News bimbo brigade is the very last group to be making that particular case.

Fox News has every right to conduct and produce its programming as its executives and owners so desire, just as I have every right to roll my eyes aat the results and call a spade a spade.

Dick Morris has forever been, and will always be, a world-class a$$ and on-air embarrassment. No real loss there for Ailes & Co.

But without a doubt, while Karl Rove's election night rant on Fox News made for some very compelling theatre, it also damaged its brand name of Fox News in a way that much of the general public found hard to ignore. That meltdown inadvertantly highlighted the network's primary role as the GOP's media arm, just as Rove's subsequent banishment underscores in hindsight a moment in time which Roger Ailes would dearly love to forget.

The simple, obvious, and tawdry reality is that most of the folks who regularly tune into the "good t.v" of Fox don't want to be stimulated and intellectually challenged in any way that might signify, or point to any potential realities outside the Free Markets and "this is a Christian nation" box.

"I, Claudius"! I loved it to the extent that I bought it in DVD. Those BBC series are great. I also bought their "The Six Wives of Henry VII."
Somehow, however, I cannot help but feel that most of the regular Fox News viewers have ever seen either of these. :-(

interviewing Tommy Chong this morning. They went back and forth about mm and Stewart asked Tommy if he was stoned right now and Tommy said he was always stoned. Tommy also said he could tell by Stewart's voice that he was stoned too. The entire Fox studio cracked up laughing. First true humor I've ever heard on Fox.